Can someone help me get started?

[CarLooSHoo]

I have read so much there is to know about raw feeding or lightly cooked feeding, but I am feeling overwhelmed. From what I understand, everything goes by weight and age and there are certain things I should know about vitamins and supplements.

I just feel like I will mess up. If someone can maybe just give me an idea of what they feed there dog on a weekly basis, maybe I can get a better understanding. I'm wanting to really do this for both my dogs because one dog now has an autoimmune disease and I do NOT want to give him steroids the rest of his life and I really think his diet will help him immune system a lot.

Meesha is 90 lbs and Sammy is 60 lbs. How would I feed them? 10% is organ meats right? And should every other meal contain meaty bones? Please...I think I'm confusing myself. If anyone can give me an example of their weekly meals I would be forever thankful!!!

[Mac's Mom]

Hi Carla,

I was extremely overwhelmed when I started too. There are so many different opinions and much contrasting information on the internet including this forum. However, once you decide which model you want to follow and make decisions on what & how much to feed, it is quite simple to do. I used Welcome to the Raw Dog Ranch and Calculate to develop my plan.

One mistake I made and I see others making constantly is to just jump in and start feeding different things which end up causing diarrhea and constipation. For example while I was still learning about raw I started throwing big pieces of organ meat into my dogs food and then he had such bad diarrhea I had to feed something else to fix that...next thing ya know he was constipated. Ya know what saying?

[CarLooSHoo]

That's exactly what I don't want to do. I don't want to go into this and make my dogs miserable with horrible poop problems. I once fed Meesha a chicken liver because I was curious how she would take it and she ended up having diarrhea, I think the liver was too big and she was a puppy at the time. Thank you for the links!

[Mac's Mom]

Bumping the thread hoping you'll get more opinions...eventhough mine is the only correct one

[CarLooSHoo]

Thank you for everything Carrie!

[lhczth]

The link that Mac's Mom provided would be one of the best places to start.

[ahowe1]

Sample Menu - Totally Raw Natural Dog Food

Looks good to me. Probably about 1.5x cost per month of what I was feeding him kibble and canned for. I think I'm ok with that.

let me know if that helps.

[Tbarrios333]

I feed my dogs beef heart, pork heart, chix necks, chix liver, occasional turkey necks, and some mackerel.
I don't have a certain schedule to feed it on like Monday I feed this and Tuesday that. Just like our diet isn't a science, your dog's diet doesn't have to complicated. The only reason we have to calculate so much is so that the dogs don't get constipated etc or get too fat.
I feed liver every other day or so for fear of gout. Mackerel I feed maybe every couple of weeks when I buy the cans. Turkey I can't seem to get until Thanksgiving so that will have to wait. Chicken is a staple because it's cheap. My main MM is pork heart and beef heart which I try to alternate every week, but it doesn't always happen.
I also feed green tripe, fish oil, and I give them a digestive aid if their system isn't doing so well or they are recovering from something. Sometimes they get canned pumpkin and plain yogurt, but the yogurt is pretty unnecessary. I don't give them supplements and I probably never will unless one develops joint issues. I think I'm forgetting something but thats about it.

[Lauri & The Gang]

Originally Posted by CarLooSHoo

I'm wanting to really do this for both my dogs because one dog now has an autoimmune disease and I do NOT want to give him steroids the rest of his life and I really think his diet will help him immune system a lot.

Which AI disease does he have?

Meesha is 90 lbs and Sammy is 60 lbs.

Ages? Are they both full-grown adults?

How would I feed them? 10% is organ meats right? And should every other meal contain meaty bones? Please...I think I'm confusing myself. If anyone can give me an example of their weekly meals I would be forever thankful!!!

Ok, here's what my guys get on an average day:

50% of their TOTAL DAILY INTAKE is fed using Muscle Meat (any meat without bone)

45% of their TOTAL DAILY INTAKE is fed using Raw Meaty Bones (any meat with bone item that can be EASILY consumed by the dog)

5% of their TOTAL DAILY INTAKE is fed using Organ Meats (mostly liver and kidney although I sometimes get my hands on brains)

I'll use Mauser as an example for the calculating part ...

Mauser weighs 75 lbs and ranges between very active (when the weather is cooler and they are outside more) and moderately active (hot days) - so I calculate his TOTAL DAILY INTAKE at 2.75% of his weight.

75 * 2.75% = roughly 2 pounds of food per day

50% of that is fed using Muscle Meat (no bones) - so he gets about 16 ounces of MM

45% is fed using Raw Meaty Bones - so he gets about 14 ounces of RMBs (usually chicken parts with the occasional lab breast, turkey neck and rabbit)

5% - between 1.5 - 2 ounces - is organ meat (beef, deer or pork liver are our staples)


I feed my gang their RMBs in the morning because they will be LESS active after eating that meal. It is not the highest amount of food but I feel it's the stuff that needs the most work to digest (again - JMHO).

They get their RMBs and OM in the evenings.

Other than Green Tripe, which I use as a Muscle Meat, my dogs get NO vegetation as part of their daily diet.

That's it. Other than some basic supplements - Salmon Oil for Omega 3s (since I can't afford grass-fed meat for MYSELF let alone the dogs) and a basic multi-vitamin for growing puppies - that's all they get.

[Tbarrios333]

Originally Posted by Tbarrios333

I don't give them supplements and I probably never will unless one develops joint issues. I think I'm forgetting something but thats about it.

Sorry, this should say vitamins. I don't believe in taking vitamins myself, so no reason to give them to the dogs. I do supplement with fish oils and occasional digestive aid.

ETA: I do give them some veggies or oatmeal when I forget to defrost raw food, but I don't include it in their overall diet.